"I am ecstatic because just the name of Bodhidharma is psychedelic to me. In the long evolution of human consciousness there has never been such an outlandish buddha as Bodhidharma: very rare, very unique, exotic. Only in some small ways George Gurdjieff comes close to him, but not very close, and only in some ways, not in all ways.

"There have been many buddhas in the world, but Bodhidharma stands out like Everest. His way of being, living, and expressing the truth is simply his. It is incomparable.

"Even his own master, Gautama the Buddha, cannot be compared with Bodhidharma. Even Buddha would have found it difficult to digest this man.

"This man Bodhidharma traveled from India to China to spread the message of his master. Although they are separated by one thousand years, but to Bodhidharma and such men there is no time, no space. For Bodhidharma, Buddha was as contemporary as Buddha is contemporary to me.

"On the surface you are my contemporaries, but between me and you there is a long, long distance. We live on different planets. In reality, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Jesus, Pythagoras, Bahauddin, Bodhidharma: these are my contemporaries. Between them and me there is no gap either of time or of space.

"Superficially there is a one thousand years' gap between Buddha and Bodhidharma, but not even a single moment's gap in reality, in truth. On the circumference Buddha was already dead for one thousand years when Bodhidharma arrived on the scene, but at the center he is together with Buddha. He speaks the essence of Buddha. Of course he has his own way, his own style, even Buddha will find it strange.

"Buddha was a very cultured man, very sophisticated, very graceful. Bodhidharma is just the opposite in his expressions. He is not a man but a lion. He does not speak, he roars. He has not that grace which belonged to Gautama the Buddha. He is rough, raw. He is not polished like a diamond. He is just from the mine, absolutely raw, no polishing. That is his beauty. Buddha has a beauty of his own: very feminine, very polished, very fragile. Bodhidharma has his own beauty, like that of a rock: strong, masculine, indestructible, a great power."